Don't Do Nothing!

 DON'T DO NOTHING!

Like most people, I’m assuming you know about the orangutans. By that I don’t mean the amazing monkeys who are one of our closest relatives. No, what I mean when I say that is about all their habitat loss, the endangered species who are thought to be extinct in the wild by 2050. But that's horrible! We share around 97% of our DNA with them. So why are we letting them die out? How could we be so cruel?

Like most animals, the orangutan has emotions. Animals aren’t cold hearted like we think. They have feelings, bonds and friendship. But we try to take that all away from them. We’re stripping them of who they are. So it will not surprise you when I tell you that the main reason of habitat loss is because of us. That’s right. Doesn’t matter how kind you think you are, you’re just sitting there letting it happen. Palm oil. Huh, what's palm oil? Well, we use it everyday, you can find it in soap, biscuits, shampoo, crisps and even lipstick! But how does palm oil relate to deforestation? We, us, the humans burn down the forest. We burn it down, destroy it, kill it. All so we can plant palm oil. And it's killing everything. We’re killing everything. We’re getting rid of the forests to satisfy our own greedy needs.

The orangutan has never hurt us. We’re hurting them. Hunters are killing them or selling the babies as pets. How horrible is that?! The orangutan isn’t the only animal being affected by this, tigers, elephants and more are all suffering from the same thing. Animals can die out. But we don’t seem to realise that. We don’t do anything. Take the vaquita. They are the most endangered marine animal in the WORLD. And do you know how many are left in the wild? 20. Only 20 are left. Or the saola, being one of the world's rarest mammals. And do you know how many of them are left in the wild? Under 750. This is just appalling. But for those of you who think ‘Ah well, that's too bad. Well, it doesn't affect me.’ it does affect you. Every time an animal dies out it leaves behind a scar. Take the dodo. The dodo is frequently known as one of the most known examples of human induced extinction. Yip, we got rid of the dodo. They were extinct by 1681. 

Have you ever heard of kōkako? If you live in New Zealand you probably have. The North Island kōkako is endangered. The South Island kōkako is extinct. Rewards of $10,000 are being offered for anyone who provides information that leads to the confirmation that the species is still alive. But the chances are that the kōkako is gone. And we’re just desperately trying to tell ourselves ‘No, its not gone. We’ll find it. It’s just hiding. We’ve done nothing wrong.’ but reflecting on the past won’t save the world. We destroyed it. So we have to save it.

Wow, this is the last activity for Running Wild. We've finished the book and I can DEFINITELY say that the ending was more than a bit unexpected. It was a really good book and I 100% recommend it. I've done lots of other activities around Running Wild, I just haven't posted them! I will try and post some of them though, just maybe not all of them.